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Seoul (AFP): The United States has offered North Korea written security guarantees in an attempt to persuade it to dismantle its nuclear arsenal, a report said Thursday. Quoting diplomatic sources, Yonhap news agency said the proposal was made at meetings between US and North Korean officials on November 27 and 28 in Beijing to pave the way for the resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
The report could not be confirmed independently. The talks resume Monday in Beijing.
“At the meeting, the US side reaffirmed it has no intention to attack or invade North Korea as was stated in the (2005) September joint agreement,” a diplomatic source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
“The US side suggested it could give such a security guarantee in a written form in the name of President Bush,” the source said.
In return, North Korea should take specific steps, he said.
These reportedly include freezing its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon north of Pyongyang, allowing inspections by international watchdogs and shutting down its nuclear test site at Punggyeri in the northeast.
“Such a written security guarantee can be seen as a prelude to the normalization of diplomatic ties between North Korea and the United States,” the source said.
North Korea signed on to a vaguely worded statement in September 2005, pledging to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for security guarantees, energy assistance and improved relations with the West.
But it pulled out of the talks two months later, protesting at US sanctions which froze its accounts in a Macau bank because of alleged counterfeiting and other illicit activities.
It then conducted its first nuclear test in October, triggering global condemnation and United Nations sanctions.
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said Wednesday that North Korea had indicated it was ready to “deal in specifics” about giving up its nuclear arsenal when it returns to the talks.
But Hill, the chief US representative to the forum, predicted “very tough negotiations” ahead.
